Thank you, Eric Beale
by nelliskinkyinbed
Summary: "One of two reasons. One, you're my partner, partners stay by each other, Kensi did the same thing for Deeks when he was shot. Two, Eric, you saved my life, I could have died today." Nell and Eric get caught in an explosion on a seemingly normal outing under Hetty's order. Eric x Nell pre ship One Shot.


It started off as an outing, Nell and Eric had been allowed into the field again by Hetty, to tap into the phone lines and get the security footage from the latest suspect's house. With it brought a certain awkwardness, last time they had gone out on assignment, Nell had got really close to him and he swore it was the moment he finally got to marvel at how beautiful her hazel eyes were. But if Nell was thinking about it, she showed no sign.

Eric watched her from the main room's swivel chair for the computer, he was meant to be looking at footage. But he caught Nell smiling along to something. Eric was convinced she had the best smile, this wasn't the first time he had gotten lost just watching her. But he was always caught out and he would end up nervous and stumble over his words until Nell left the room, making him feel like a complete idiot for having the worlds biggest crush on her.

"You're doing it again, Eric," Nell called over to him without even having to look up from her laptop. Even though she always made Eric aware of when he was staring, she had to confess, she liked it, how he looked at her like she was the only person that mattered. Though she would never tell him, she had probably never been looked like that before, even by one of her previous boyfriends. Nell would get this warm feeling and couldn't help but smile under his green eyed gaze.

"Uh, right," Eric looked back down to his hands, "Sorry, I was just, I was uh, I was..."

Nell looked towards him, "I know what you were doing," she replied as she typed the keys of her laptop. "You had the look on your face again while you were watching me," Nell smirked for a second. Just because she liked the way he looked at her didn't mean she couldn't tease him in the meantime.

Eric's brows knitted, "A look, what look?"

Nell properly returned to her work, shaking her head and grinning as she left him without a reply. It was fun to watch him fumble over his words, sometimes she felt bad for it, but it was easy to make it up to him. "I have to go call the team," she stood up, grabbing her phone off the table before walking out the sliding door of the house.

Eric sucked in a breath and combed a hand back through his hair, he then turned back to the computer. Everything on this was password protected, you couldn't even get into paint without asking for a code. "Come on, come on," Eric repeated as he ran a password cracking software through this man's computer. He looked back up to Nell, she was pacing back and forward, smiling as she talked on the phone, probably talking to Kensi. _Hopefully_ talking to Kensi. He couldn't help how he felt when another guy apart from the one's on the team came close to her. He and her spent ages at work and sometimes movie nights and weekends together, they were best friends. It's not that he was worried about her, Nell could protect herself way better than he could, he just had a slight jealousy issue. He knew she was aware of it, she had even called him up on it once, but that was the one thing she never asked him about.

Suddenly a series of beeping and alert tones coming from the computer and surround sound pulled him back to reality. The screen was flashing red while behind a timer everything was being deleted off the hard drive. Eric's eyes went wide and he froze for just a second - What was it counting down to?

9...

8...

"Eric, what the hell is happening?" Nell yelled over the noise while blocking her ears.

He jumped up from his seat, running from the computer and across the room to where Nell had stepped inside. "Nell, get out now!" He dodged past the couches to right beside her, grabbing her arm and pulling her out with him. "Run and keep in front of me!" he pushed her forward and she followed without questioning. Eric was keeping track of the countdown in his head, so he know what time to cover her.

3...

2...

The last things he remembered were the debris striking his back and flying past him as the explosion blasted it's heat against his back, forcing him forward and to the concrete.

* * *

Nell sat on the edge of her chair as she watched Eric's chest slowly rise and fall. She hadn't left the room in the past six hours, she had been sitting in the chair, resting for the most part. She wanted to thank him as soon as he woke up. Before she could be moved into the ambulance she saw how narrowly they must have escaped the explosion, she would have died if it wasn't for him. And now he was laying in the hospital bed, burns on his arms and back, cuts over his face; he should have been awake by now.

She hugged her fractured arm for a moment before looking back to the clock, "Please be okay Eric," she whispered, placing her hand on his. She moved her fingers between his, tracing her thumb over a cut along his knuckles. "I need my partner here for me, so please just wake up and show me that you're okay."

After another twenty minutes minutes of watching over him, Nell noticed his eyes twitch like he was disoriented or confused. His face scrunched up has he tried to shift, then pain was just written all over his face.

Nell stood up to get closer, "Eric it's okay, just try not to move. You were hurt pretty bad but you're in hospital now." As soon as she spoke she felt his grip tighten on her hand. She placed her other hand over his, "It's okay," she repeated.

His eyes slowly opened and he glanced from side to side, wincing at the stinging of the bright lights. "Nell?" his eyes found her and he felt relief wash over him and he let himself breathe. "Nell," he looked her up and down and saw her bandaged arm, "You okay?"

Her mouth parted, confused. "Eric, am I okay? You're the one that has burns all over your back. I should be the one worried about you, I am worried about you." She sat on the side of his bed.

"It's just a bit of pain, but I think the drugs are handling that quite well," Eric tried to pull off a smile. But he could still sense her worry. "Are my glasses still okay? I can't exactly see right now."

"Yeah, Hetty brought your spare pair," she removed her hand from him and reached for the bag by the bedside table.

"How long have you been waiting here?" he asked as she searched through the bag.

"Uh, nearly seven hours I guess, I wanted to be here when you woke up," she found the glasses and removed them from the case, they were just like his old ones except these had a dark blue rim.

"You should have gotten some proper sleep, why did you stay so long?" He expected her to hand over the glasses, but instead she moved back locks of his hair and put the glasses on him herself. He was then able to see her more clearly, her face was close and he was caught by her beautifully shaded eyes.

Her voice was soft as she checked over the larger cut on his forehead, "One of two reasons. One, you're my partner, partners stay by each other, Kensi did the same thing for Deeks when he was shot. Two, Eric, you saved my life, I could have died today," her voice hitched and she felt her eyes burning, "But you made sure that didn't happen."

His hand moved to her arm, "Nell, it's okay, I'm just glad you came out of it better than me, I'd rather be laying here than have to watch you in the same position."

Nell shook her head, "Just let me thank you okay, it's the most I can do until you get out of here, then I'm checking up on you while you're off work - no arguments."

Eric allowed himself to smile, this time Nell following, "Okay, fine."

Nell leaned down, pressing her lips against his top lip. It wasn't a proper kiss, but it wasn't a kiss on the cheek either. She placed her hand on his cheek before pulling back, her thumb tracing along the slight stubble. "Thank you, Eric Beale."


End file.
